February 27, 2002
At Ground Zero, schools try to return to normal; Dust keeps one NYC school closed

UFT President Randi Weingarten welcomes students back to Neil Mark's classroom. The High School for Leadership and Public Service reopened Jan. 30. Miller Photography.

Waiting took on a whole new meaning for students and staff at six schools in New York City in the five months since the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

The World Trade Center was their back yard. The shadows loomed over PS 150, PS 234, IS 89 and the High School for Leadership and Finance, all of which reopened during the past five weeks.

The reopening of another school, PS 89, was delayed because of parental concerns over safety. They also worried that yet another move - kids had already been moved twice - would harm instruction. The school is scheduled to reopen Feb. 28. The sixth school, the High School of Economics and Finance, remains in limbo.

Welcome back

On a Valentine's Day visit to the High School for Leadership and Public Service, things were rosy as students and staff at the 14-story building were back at work.

"The building was clean and we're so happy to be back," said Principal Ada Doltch. Ribbons, balloons and posters still adorned the large lobby two weeks after a welcome-back party featuring several actors and celebrities. Ringing the doorway were notes of encouragement students wrote on strips of paper their first day back.

Most of the notes resonated with hope and happiness. A few were tinged with fear such as one student's sentence: "I was scared to look out the windows, but once I did I was fine."

Students in the halls said the last two weeks back at their normal schedule enabled them to get to school early, meeting with teachers and planning school activities well after the last school bell rings.

Concerns vary

Emotions about going back to PS 89, three blocks from what is now a 16-acre site for removing debris, ran so high that parents and teachers held a vote Jan. 29. The school's Parents Association had filed a lawsuit to delay the return.

The vote to return to the school on Feb. 28 ended weeks of bitter conflict over the date of the return, the New York Times reported. Parents also dropped the lawsuit.

UFT Vice President Ron Jones said kids and staff went through a lot of "educational disruption."

Jones said, "First the kids were housed at PS 3 in the West Village and then they had settled in at JHS 22 in the Lower East Side. There was a concern about tests," especially the English Language Arts test in fourth grade.

Dust stirs worry

Reopening for the High School for Economics and Finance was postponed indefinitely when teachers walked through and found a thick layer of dust and fibers. The inspection revealed "all kinds of soot and fibers and it was clear it wasn't going to fly," said chapter leader Eric Gernant.

The local union representing teachers, paraprofessionals and secretaries, the United Federation of Teachers, refused to let members go back to the building.

Tom Pappas, who chairs the UFT's Health and Safety Committee, said the union's main concern is safety for children and staff, who have already been through a great ordeal. At New York Teacher press time, there was still no word when the building would be ready.

Although staffers agree safety is paramount, when that return home was delayed, it was like a dagger to the heart, said guidance counselor Jeff Makris.

"This chaos is undermining our credibility," Makris said. Kids "want to know 'Why wasn't our building cleaned properly?' We're living day to day."

Daily living means working out of cartons in a room occupied by another guidance counselor, three deans and seven other support staffers. For months, they had to get by with only one phone. Two phones were added in early February.

Parents have raised concerns because educational conditions at their temporary school, Norman Thomas HS several miles north in midtown Manhattan, are deteriorating. Instructional periods last only 30 minutes. Students have no access to the building after 6:30 p.m.

Gernant said he's more optimistic since union leadership, including UFT Vice President John Soldini and Secretary Pappas, has been pushing the issue.